9781422274798

• Balance. • Rotation—in less than one second, gymnasts can do 900 or 1080 degrees of rotation in twisting moves. • Spatial awareness, proprioception, and kinesthetic awareness . • Accuracy in timing, to 6/1000 of a second. • Male gymnasts have to have a short-distance sprint speed of twenty or more miles per hour (sixteen for women). • Men and women reach tumbling and vault heights of sixteen and thirteen feet high, respectively. • To perform some of these athletic moves, gymnasts have to have the strength to momentarily handle loads of force up to nine times their body weight. That’s amazing! Scoring

Gymnasts need speed, agility , strength, power, flexibility, hand- eye coordination , and analytical ability to calculate twists and landings. Famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in the 1976 Olympic Games. To the crowd’s amazement, Comaneci went on to achieve seven perfect 10s to become the world’s new gymnastics sensation.

CHAPTER 1 : EVOLUTION OF GYMNASTICS

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